Essay in ‘Amsterdam: Anticipating the Future?’

Architect, consultant and tourism expert Stephen Hodes took the initiative to publish a magazine, Amsterdam: Anticipating the Future?, which explores the future of the Dutch capital as a tourist destination. Through a selection of essays, interviews, photos and infographics, the magazine discusses the expected growth of the number of people visiting Amsterdam from around the globe. While this generates new jobs and extra revenues, it also increases the prices of real estate and the costs of living in the city. What to do?

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Documenting six years of underground culture

Situated on the Wibautstraat in the east of Amsterdam, Trouw was a nightclub, music venue, cultural space and restaurant housed in the former newspaper printing facility of several national newspapers. Trouw combined food, music and the arts, and was the first nightclub to receive the 24-hour permit from the city of Amsterdam. After six years of experimenting and over time slowly establishing itself as one of the top nightlife and cultural venues in the city and beyond, Trouw closed its doors on 3 January 2015.

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New publication

On Sunday 9 February we launched World Heritage Now. This publication shows the dynamic and fragile nature of UNESCO World Heritage by juxtaposing UNESCO’s original guidelines with recent media coverage from around the world and personal remarks and commentary by Non-fiction’s Michiel van Iersel, who is the inaugural guest curator of the new World Heritage Podium in Amsterdam. Designed by Rafe Copeland, the publication questions the sustainability of the World Heritage List in a world in flux, and proposes new and radical directions and actions for UNESCO.

The launch took take place in the building of Amsterdam’s City Archives on Sunday 9 February from 15:00 – 16:30. Several guests responded to the publication. With a.o. Esther Agricola (Director of the Office of Monuments & Archeology, City of Amsterdam, responsible for the Canal Di), Riemer Knoop (Professor of Cultural Heritage at the Reinwardt Academy and advisor to The Netherlands National Commission for UNESCO) and Tracy Metz (journalist and director of the John Adams Institute).

The publication was commissioned by the World Heritage Podium. The Netherlands has nine World Heritage sites that are acknowledged by UNESCO. All of these are brought to life in the World Heritage Podium. The World Heritage Podium is situated in the monumental building De Bazel in Amsterdam. It is simultaneously the information centre for the Canal District Amsterdam, that was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2010.

More information on www.werelderfgoed.nl/podium

And get a free hard copy by sending an e-mail to podium@wereld­erfgoed.nl

Included in new book ‘Reactivate!’

Although we’re non-architects, Non-fiction is included in the new book ‘Reactivate! Innovators of Dutch Architecture’, written by Indira van ‘t Klooster and published by Trancity*Valiz, together with a.o. DUS Architects, FABRIC, Powerhouse Company, Space&matter, Superuse Studios and ZUS Architects.

Find more information here.

We’re featured in the chapter that deals with ‘performative urbanism’ and our FloriadeRadar-app, showing local interaction on social media on a map, has been highlighted.

Bureau Europa in the city of Maastricht is devoting an exhibition to the book. In addition to the offices mentioned in the book, the exhibition will include several other offices, including Rietveld Landscape and XML Architecture Research Urbanism. The opening of this exhibition/manifestation will take place on June 8 between 17 – 19 hours at  Bureau Europa, Timmerfabriek, Boschstraat 9, Maastricht.  

15 minutes without fame

This article appeared in the Vonk section of De Volkskrant on 16 March 2013.

15 minutes without fame

Video duikt overal in steeds onverwachtere vormen op. Van achter het dashboard of met de skihelm leggen we elkaar vast. Dat leidt ook tot opstand.
Door Juha van ’t Zelfde

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Remembering Aaron Swartz

The title translates into “People like Aaron should be cherished”

The Netherlands’ national newspaper De Volkskrant invited me to contribute to last Saturday’s edition on the tragic passing of Aaron Swartz and the complex issue of open access to public information.

You can read the article here.

Publication: Scramble City

Scramble City is a visual essay by Lada Hršak, Michiel van Iersel, Dieuwertje Komen and Neeltje ten Westenend. It presents a fragmented journey through a fragmented urban landscape filled with good intentions.

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Social weather

The ubiquitous use of mobile devices to document and distribute our daily activities in a never-ending stream of updates, checkins, tweets and retweets is generating an ever-expanding biosphere of social information.

This advancing ecosystem is growing into an adaptive system of informational weather. Technologist Ben Hammersley calls it ‘social weather’: “I want to feel my friends like I feel the weather.”

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